In his opinion piece, “Taxes Far More Than Necessary Evil,” Rabbi Strauss demonstrates why he should stick to his “day job” as a synagogue spiritual leader. His writing on both Halacha and tax issues is filled with misinformation and erroneous reasoning. Rabbi Strauss cites the tax to support the Mishkan as proof that taxes have been a legitimate part of Jewish life since we left Egypt. Of course, that was a poll tax that was imposed on every adult male regardless of income or wealth. He goes on to immediately say that Jewish sources tell us that there is an obligation to provide universal education and health care for the poor – using taxes to finance it. His Jewish sources must be liberal Jewish editorial writers since the Torah requires only supporting Torah education rather than general education – and only in cases where the family is unable to afford it. According to our tradition, parents have the the primary responsibility for educating their children and teaching them a trade. Does anyone remember the story of Hillel peeking into a Torah study session from outside and getting sick from exposure to the elements because he could not afford the admission fee to the session? He was then admitted for free, but the “tradition” was that people should pay for even their own Torah education except in cases of financial need. Even Hillel did not demand admission to the lecture as an entitlement. In fact, the amount our tradition says should be allocated to support the poor is 10% of income, and the sages recommended limiting contributions to 20% of income to avoid having the donor become impoverished. If there were additional “needs,” they would not be funded. There is no open ended requirement to support limitless needs of others.
Further, regarding the issues of education funding and taxation, there are other inaccuracies. Arizona has two funds for education: Capital and Operating. When comparing spending to other states to get a rank of 48 in spending, the Capital spending is excluded. When that is added back in, Arizona is ranked 24. Also, student enrollment has increased about 10.7% over the past 4 years. In the same period, state funding for education increased 40%, the number of school administrators increased 17.9%, managers increased 27.6%, total superintendent salaries increased 49%, number of teachers increased 13.7%, and average teacher salaries increased 16.5% to $49,331. In addition, during that time, school districts, while complaining about a shortage of money, have, since 2003, been increasing their cash reserves by $1 billion to $2.3 billion as of June 2008. This information is from Arizona Department of Education reports. Arizona taxpayers do not need to be further burdened with taxes to support bureaucratic empires built within the state's school districts. Arizona's students need the money to be spent wisely on educating students rather than supporting bureaucrats and building up their slush funds.
Regarding the tuition scholarship tax credit, those credits actually save the state money by shifting students from public schools where the cost per pupil to government is at least $8500 per year to private schools at a cost to taxpayers far less than that.
More taxation is not the answer. Higher taxes drive away productive people and businesses that support our communities. We need more freedom and less government to improve education and to foster economic growth that will make everyone better off.
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